A 55-year-old woman visits a popular eatery for lunch. She orders a cheese and bacon pizza with extra cheese and has about 3 large glasses of cola (ph value 3). On the way back home, she experiences heartburn and abdominal pain, and has difficulty breathing. She drinks a lot of water and has to consume milk of magnesia (pH value 10.5) before she feels comfortable again. Be sure to list your references!

1. Classify the liquids that she has consumed (water, cola, milk of magnesia) as acidic or alkaline.

2. State the pH values of water and blood.

3. State what the patient can include and avoid in her diet on a regular basis to avoid these symptoms in the future.

1. Classification of the three liquids is as follows.

Water: neutral (i.e. it is neither acidic, not alkaline). Water has a pH of 7 which makes it perfectly neutral. It has equal amounts of H+ and OH- ions.

Cola: acidic. Cola has a pH of 3 as mentioned in the question statement. Any substance with a pH less than 7 has excess H+ ions and is acidic.

Milk of Magnesia: alkaline. Milk of Magnesia (magnesium hydroxide) has a pH of 10 as mentioned in the question. It has an excess of OH- ions. Any substance with a pH greater than 7 is alkaline.

2. The pH value of water is 7. The pH value of blood is between 7.35 to 7.45.

3. The heartburn symptoms that the patient exhibited are caused by excessive acids such as HCl in the stomach. The pain associated with stomach acid can be relieved by having milk of magnesia or Mylanta, both of which are alkaline in nature and neutralizes the acid in the stomach to produce water and salts. To prevent recurrence of such symptoms the patient should avoid foods high is acid. This includes sour fruits and juices such as lime, lemon, or oranges. Meats such as ground beef and buffalo wings should be avoided as they cause more stomach acid to be produced. Carbonated drinks should be avoided because they can force stomach acid up into the esophagus. Another food item to avoid is chocolate. Chocolate causes the spinchter muscle that keeps stomach acid within the stomach to relax which allows the acid to rise into the esophagus, causing heartburn. Vegetables and non-citrus fruits are good to include in her diet because these foods have been shown to help improve the ability of the spinchter muscle to keep stomach acids within the stomach.

References:

http://www.webmd.com/heartburn-gerd/guide/heartburn-foods-to-avoid

http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=fightdz&dbid=14